The invention relates to a solid composition based on sorbitol and phosphates.
It is directed also to a process for the preparation of this composition as well as the use of the latter for the preparation of freezing additives or adjuvants for foodstuffs based on minced meat.
It relates more particularly to foodstuffs which are based on marine animal meat and particularly fish; these foodstuffs are known under the Japanese collective term of "KAMABOKO" which covers a whole range of "seafood products"; the essential constituent of these KAMABOKO type foodstuffs is a raw material denoted by the term, also Japanese, of "SURIMI". This is fish meat from which the skin, bones and guts have been removed and which is minced after prolonged washing with water.
The remoteness of fishing grounds and the fact that the production of SURIMI of satisfactory quality requires the use of extremely fresh fish meat results in this product being increasingly manufactured directly on board of factory ships where it is frozen in order to be preservable until the time of its use for the manufacture, for example, of KAMABOKO.
Now, freezing causes the SURIMI and consequently the final foodstuff of which it is an important constituent to lose irreversibly its functional properties. These functional properties comprise the elasticity of the gel formed after the cooking of the SURIMI and the degree of whiteness of this SURIMI.
It has been proposed, particularly following studies carried out by NISHIYA and TAKEDA in the laboratories of the "fisheries of Hokkaido" in 1959, to introduce into chopped fish intended for freezing, cryoprotective agents enabling the SURIMI to conserve its functional properties.
The most effective cryoprotective agents are particularly sorbitol, phosphates or polyphosphates and emulsifiers and/or fats.
It has been proposed to introduce these cryoprotective agents at the level of the choppers, which constitutes a convenient manner of distributing them as uniformly as possible in the fish meat to be minced and frozen.
However, to reduce the handling operations and to gain space, especially when manufacturing SURIMI on board ship, it is preferred to use these cryoprotective agents in the form of a composition of cryoprotective agents, that is to say of a single freezing adjuvant.
It has been proposed to resort, as a single freezing adjuvant, to mixtures of sorbitol powder and phosphates on to which has been sprayed the emulsifier and/or the fat, or again to resort to a product obtained by spraying on to sorbitol powder, of a premix of emulsifiers and/or of fats and phosphates.
Unfortunately, the freezing adjuvant so obtained does not give satisfaction to the user since, considering that the granulometry of the sorbitol is different from that of the phosphates, segregation phenomena occur according to the size of the particles, especially in the course of pneumatic transportation of the adjuvant. This phenomenon is manifested by variations in the composition of the adjuvant progressively with its use and consequently by variations in the conservation of the functional properties of the final SURIMI.